Shark's Fins Soup
Collated by Paul Quek (e-mail: quekpaul@hotmail.com) , in SingaporeThis years's import of shark's fins in Singapore may plummet by as much as 25 per cent.
Hurrah!
What the reasons for the fall in consumption?
The possible reasons are:
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Firstly, due to greater environmental awareness -- arising from, for example,
campaigns asking people to leave out shark's fins soup from wedding-dinner
menus.
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Secondly, the economic slowdown -- due primarily to the recent shocks (such as
SARS) to the Singapore economy.
The drop in consumption of shark's fins is good news to conservationists -- such as Mr Victor Wu, 27, who is the shark campaign coordinator of WildAid , a wildlife conservation outfit ...
For those of us who go scuba diving in the "open waters" -- i.e, in seas and oceans, as opposed to lakes and rivers -- the subject of sharks always turn up regularly ... I mean, we would rather not meet a shark in the deep, thank you very much!
Personally, I've got nothing against sharks -- it's just that I'd rather not meet with a shark face-to-face while scuba diving ... well, okay, maybe a real tiny baby shark would be "kinda cute"... Maybe!
Okay, anything tiny or small -- where it's on the land or in the seas -- that isn't out to bite me or, worse, eat me, is "kinda cute"!!!
Hey, I'm a regular and straight "normal" guy ... with a healthy survival instinct and thus all the "normal" fears ...
Still, scientists would probably tell us that the sharks are an important part of the eco-system -- especially to those humans who love eating shark-fin soup! (Then again -- I wonder what living thing on this planet isn't an important part of our eco-sphere ... our knowledge isn't that complete!)
Anyway, here are the figures from International Enterprise Singapore (previously, Trade Development Board):
| Time Designation | Amount of shark's finss Imported by Singapore |
| 2000 | 629 tonnes |
| 2001 | 507 tonnes |
| 2002 | 632 tonnes |
| As at August 2003 | 313 tonnes |
After firing up the necessary spreadsheet software, I went on to produce the following line graph:
But the conservationists are still ringing the alarm bells.
The Straits Times (22 Nov 03) report says that:
The number of sharks globally has decreased by more than 50 per cent in the past 15 years and Singapore's shark's fins imports remain among the highest in the world.
Miss Soon Chin Ai, 31, a youth counsellor, said while most people know that killing sharks for their fins is not an environmentally friendly act, some old customs die hard. It was difficult to persuade people, especially the older generation, to give up serving shark's fins soup on auspicious occasions.
Mr Jonathan Lim, 33, a civil engineer, agreed. He said: 'During my wedding dinner, my parents wanted to have shark's fins soup.' And they did.
Restaurant manager Jacky Ma, 48, said that many Chinese consume shark's fins soup because it has a cachet attached to it - it is looked on as a prestigious delicacy.
However, one person who said he would always abstain from shark's fins soup was 39-year-old adventurer Khoo Swee Chiow. He said: 'We are disturbing the food chain by our excessive consumption. If nothing is done now, future generations will suffer.'
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US Lawmakers Tackling "Shark Finning"
On October 31, 2000, Associated Press (AP) carried a report that the U.S. House of Representatives had voted to ban in U.S. waters what lawmakers called the "horrific and wasteful" practice of cutting off a shark's fins and throwing the fish back into the sea to die.
The bill was aimed mainly at Pacific Ocean fishermen in the highly profitable business of supplying shark's finss to the Asian markets, where shark's fins is regarded as a culinary delicacy and an aphrodisiac.
The bill made possession of a shark's finss without its carcass illegal in all U.S. federal waters, which extend out 200 miles (320 kilometers) from American territory. That effectively would deter small boat operators from finning because it's not economically feasible to carry the carcasses, which have little market value.
The US Commerce Department took administrative action in 1993 to halt finning in Atlantic, Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico waters after it became apparent the practice was reducing shark populations.
That ruling did not include fishing in the Pacific, where finning was less prevalent a decade ago. Fishing groups in Hawaii have questioned the effects of finning on the number of blue sharks in their waters. But environmental groups say the number of sharks killed for their fins in the western Pacific has increased precipitously in recent years, reaching 60,000 animals in 1998.
"Ending this egregious waste in U.S. waters is critical to maintaining our nation's leadership role in international shark conservation initiatives and to addressing finning worldwide," said Sonja Fordham, a shark fisheries specialist for the Center for Marine Conservation.
Hawaii's governor signed into law a similar measure in June 2000 that said shark's finss brought to Hawaiian ports must be on the shark or, if sliced off, the carcass must be stored aboard the ship.
Finning primarily involves ocean blue sharks unintentionally caught each year with tuna and swordfish.
The sharks, which grow to about 13 feet (4 meters) and 400 pounds (180 kilograms), are hauled aboard, their fins are sliced off and the sometimes still-living fish are dumped back into the sea. There they are eaten, bleed to death or drown.
Sharks, with their slow growth, late maturity and small number of offspring, are among the most biologically vulnerable species in the ocean.
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WildAid
The American nature protection organization WildAid had always warned that sharks are threatened by extinction.
"Shark Finning", or the hunt for shark's fins, costs approximately 100 million sharks a year. Most fins land in luxury restaurants of Asia, where a portion of shark-fin soup can cost up to US$150 dollars.
Scientifically, it is unproven that shark's fins have any positive medical effects on the health of man. It is more of a prestige thing -- especially, for specific occasions (such as wedding dinners) when shark's fins are a speciality dish.
WildAid likened the slaughtering of sharks to the hunt for ivory in the past.
Also, sharks have had a bad press -- as in the slogan "Only a dead shark is a good shark".